TOW #17: "Essay: Philip Seymour Hoffman, an actor of moments big and small," Ann Hornaday

Today, the entertainment industry, and the whole world lost a great talent. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, an award-winning, iconic actor was found dead in his New York apartment. Many people will want to comment on the cause of his death, why he felt the need to overdose, but while that is important, it is also important to remember the great accomplishments and celebrate his life. In her essay, "Phillip Seymour Hoffman, an actor of moments big and small," Ann Hornaday does an impressive job of doing just that. Rather than writing an article about the drug overdose or the problems leading up to it, she wrote a beautiful memorial that showed the true character of Hoffman. Hornaday used examples of Hoffman's work, such as older films, like "Hard Eight," Oscar-winning ones, such as "Capote," and much more recent ones, like "The Ides of March" and "The Master." By giving a list of a few of the movies Hoffman has starred in, Hornaday creates a feeling that the actor was capable of any role. He could go from a quiet, soft-spoken man to a crazy cult-leader from movie to movie. The range of movies that he did show his versatility as an actor, and also shows that he was a part of many films in his career. When the author does touch on the drug overdose issue, she does so briefly. She compares his situation to others, saying "the same rhetoric swirled around Heath Ledger when he died in 2008, and Cory Monteith upon his death last July. The same myth has attached to such writers as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Eugene O’Neill..." Many other great and talented humans have looked to drugs or alcohol to find peace, which has ultimately killed them. The artists that the author has listed, like Hoffman, were very talented and put so much good work into the world. Hornaday's language was beautiful throughout the peace. One of the most powerful lines was when she stated that, "someone willing to take the psychic, emotional and even physical risks necessary to shape-shift into another individual, over and over again — leads them to seek numbness, whether to quiet the voices in their heads, heal their primal wounds or help the sensory and creative juices to flow..." The comparison of acting to shape-shifting really put into perspective, at least for me, the grating damage that career choice can have. In the next paragraph though, it is obvious that even though Hornaday is sympathetic, she will not romanticize the "tortured artist" image. I thought this was an extremely touching article of the life Phillip Seymour Hoffman led, and it really made me think about the consequences of fame.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/essay-philip-seymour-hoffman-an-actor-of-moments-big-and-small/2014/02/02/f43b2aba-8c51-11e3-95dd-36ff657a4dae_story.html